*** The hunt for any and all weapons will continue for some time, and I'm confident plent more will be uncovered ***

TIKRIT, Iraq - U.S. troops uncovered one of their biggest weapons caches to date Saturday at a farm near Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s birthplace, including anti-aircraft missiles and a huge quantity of explosives used to make the homemade bombs that have killed numerous American soldiers.

In the second raid in as many days on a farm near the village of Uja, where Saddam was born and the site of a recent bomb attack against American soldiers, U.S. troops acting on a tip dug through the soft earth near a river bank and found the cache underneath a covering of reeds and straw.

"This is a significant discovery because everything we take out of the enemy's hands can't be used against us," said Maj. Mike Rauhut, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment.

The raid was a follow-up on information gleaned following a Thursday assault on the farm, a 2 1/2-square-mile spread of lime, pear and pomegranate trees.

"It's tied to some former regime people. That's always good as it makes a small dent on their ability to resist," Rauhut said.

Their target at the time was a reported cache of rockets and homemade bombs that are used to attack U.S. convoys on the main road through Tikrit, also known as "RPG Alley" because of rocket-propelled grenades frequently fired by Iraqi resistance fighters in the area.

At the time, in an area just 500 meters (yards) away from the cache, soldiers had found a heavy machine gun and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

"It is a substantial weapons cache, it's not the largest we have found but it probably rivals it," Rauhut said. "The most significant part are the surface-to-air missiles and explosives."

The SA-7 shoulder-fired missiles could pose a significant threat to the helicopters used by the U.S. military in and around Tikrit.

U.S. troops have been carrying out near-daily raids following a coordinated attack by Iraqi resistance fighters on Sept. 19 that killed three American soldiers. The raids have resulted in dozens of arrests and follow-up raids.

Vice President Dick Cheney first asserted that one of the bombers -- a U.S. citizen and one of the FBI's most-wanted terrorists -- received help from Iraq, although he offered little detail. Another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said while some evidence has been uncovered, it was too soon to reach any conclusions.

Cheney, speaking Sept. 14 on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press" program, did not mention the suspect by name. Other officials have confirmed he was speaking of Abdul Rahman Yasin, who is accused of mixing the chemicals in the bomb used in the 1993 attack.

"And we have learned subsequent to that, since we got into Baghdad and got into the intelligence files, that this individual probably also received financing from the Iraqi government, as well as safe haven," Cheney said.

Yasin fled the country after the 1993 bombing. He is the only man wanted for that attack who is still outside U.S. custody.

Saddam's regime said it had imprisoned Yasin since arresting him in 1994, and that offers to turn him over to the U.S. government were rebuffed in the weeks before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

In 2002, he was interviewed on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" at an Iraqi prison. He thus far has not turned up in postwar Iraq.

The U.S. official said some Iraqi intelligence files indeed suggested Iraqi support for Yasin after the 1993 bombing. But the official said it was too early to conclude what, if any, support he received.

Other U.S. officials contacted by The Associated Press would not expound on Cheney's assertion. Cheney's office did not return a call seeking comment.

Cheney said the man was Iraqi. In fact, Yasin, 43, was born in Indiana and holds U.S. citizenship, according to the FBI. He is of Iraqi heritage and moved there as a child, returning to the United States in 1992, according to the FBI.

Cheney's description of Yasin came after "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert asked him about Iraqi connections to Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which destroyed the World Trade Center.

"Now, is there a connection between the Iraqi government and the original World Trade Center bombing in '93?" Cheney said. "We know, as I say, that one of the perpetrators of that act did in fact receive support from the Iraqi government after the fact."

But the first World Trade Center bombing is not precisely considered an Al Qaeda operation by American counterterrorism officials.

At the time, Al Qaeda was in its formative stages in Sudan, and officials said they know of no conclusive evidence that ties either Usama bin Laden or the Iraqi government to the attack.

Instead, some of the terrorists who carried out the bombing would later ally themselves with bin Laden's organization. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, was connected financially to the 1993 attack; he and bomber Ramzi Yousef would later receive financial support from bin Laden's brother-in-law.

U.S. officials also offered no evidence Yasin took part in terrorist activity after he went to Iraq following the 1993 bombing.

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